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Tune into today's audio post by clicking below.

Tune into today's audio post by clicking below.

Partially due to the rise of the internet, our 3rd millennial lifestyles often lead us towards selfish, self-image spirituality. The emphasis isn’t on who we are on the inside, but who we present ourselves to be on the outside. We are judged by the content of blogs, MySpace and Facebook pages, personal websites, podcasts, and YouTube videos.

Unfortunately, all of these can be edited. I say “unfortunately” because in the midst of editing photos, blogs, videos, and the like, we are leaving part of ourselves behind. The more we edit, the easier it is to overlook the ugly parts of our lives. Whether it’s a stranger or a best friend that visits our website, they only see the best of us — not the worst. Whether we realize it or not, we are slowly becoming like spiritual Pharisees.

2 Timothy 3:5 has been deeply stirring for me. Speaking of the end times, Paul writes, “They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes, they are animals.” Yikes. In many ways, many of us can relate.

We can have an appearance of godliness, yet deny its power. We can appear put together online, yet behave in a contrary way offline. A good show, whether at church or online, does not equal spiritual success.

It is somewhat unrealistic to suppose that we won’t put our “best foot forward” in a public arena. I dare say that we should still brush our teeth, check our spelling, and mind our manners. It definitely matter how others perceive us.

However, as we get better at marketing ourselves, it would be a death sentence to forget what is behind the scenes. One our greatest challenges is to confront the unseen parts of our life. Behind the scenes — when the camera is no longer rolling, when there is no more blogging to be done — what is left?

Whether it’s verbalized or not, a church’s music style communicates doctrine — or at the very least, it communicates values. That’s not something that we often think about. Unfortunately, we are usually more concerned with the sound than the substance, and we don’t stop to contemplate the greater implications of our style choices.

What does style communicate? For the hymn-singing church, it may be that “Church tradition is inherently valuable.” For the blended church, it may be that “Everyone should get along.” For the contemporary church, “Sunday morning ain’t so bad.” For the modern church, “Newer is better.” And for the emerging church, “There is more to worship than video screens.”

There are tremendous truths in those statements. However, once we establish what we are communicating, we then need to ask ourselves, “Is this what we want to be communicating? What are we saying about the Kingdom?”

Most often, we’ll find that we need say more. For the soft rock church, that may mean trying a new style of music. After all, there will be all kinds of voices in heaven. For the traditional church, that may mean incorporating some gospel songs or contemporary hymns — to communicate that God continues to speak through the ages. Or a blended church could cancel the music and read the Psalms for 20 minutes, emphasizing that worship goes beyond musical preferences.

While serving at Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago, I realized how much musical styles communicate. The church is full of ethnic and economic diversity, and the musical styles are also quite diverse — including traditional, African, contemporary, reggae, and gospel. As far as style goes, nothing was off limits.

At UBC, the different styles communicated a message about heaven: That every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The congregation not only looked different, but we sounded different and sang different. Even a first-time visitor would have heard that our vision of heaven is a bit different than the church in a nearby suburb.

Now for your turn. What do the styles in your church communicate?

I recently led worship for 300 children.  You never quite know how kids will respond, but they all like to have fun.  So I began by asking them, “Are you guys ready to have some fun?”  And of course, that was all they needed to hear.  All of them were excited and ready to go.

The projector wasn’t working, so there were no lyrics; but we laughed at that.  Most of the kids couldn’t read the words anyways.  I invited the children to sing if they knew the songs and to sing the echo parts after me.

From the first beat, all 300 kids started clapping.  Nearly all of them were on beat.  It was surprising to say the least.  I have led worship at dozens of churches, for all age groups, and very few were ready to worship from the first beat.

Their echoes were loud and energetic.  Their volume equaled the PA output.  It was not the obnoxious singing, either.  They sang like angels.

We ended by singing Chris Tomlin’s “We Fall Down.”  At the end, the band cut out, leaving just a quiet acoustic guitar and the children’s voices.  Let me tell you, it was indescribable.  As the innocent sang, God’s holiness filled the entire room.  I have never heard a purer sound.

I rarely cry when on stage, but as the children sang, tears filled my eyes.  The sound was overwhelming.  God heard the sound, and he overfilled the room with His presence.  I will never forget it.

If you’ve got a handful of children in your church, bring them together and go for it.  The more children, the better.  For us, we experienced a little bit of heaven.

This was written nearly a year ago (11/15/06), but not much has changed. The question is still a good one.

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My dog, Lily, is a strange conglomerate of beagle, basset, and boxer.

She is a beautiful dog of snow white, with a few perfectly placed brown spots. She is lean, muscular, and smart. I wouldn’t know, but she is probably pretty “hot stuff” in the dog world.

You might think that she spends her days sleeping, and when not sleeping, hunting in the yard for squirrels. Yet, while that is partly true, the boxer in her comes through the most.

Taking her for a walk, for instance, is an incredibly difficult task. She pulls and pulls, with her 40 lbs. of muscle, in one way then the next. She walks in front, behind, and to the side. She will race after other dogs, cars, and any faint sound or smell.

Everytime I walk her, my arms end up aching from all of the pulling and jerking.

The question is, who is in charge? Who is leading whom? Am I leading my dog for a walk, or is she leading me?

The Apostle Paul addresses this same question in Romans 8:14, where he discusses the relationship between the “dog” of the flesh and the Spirit of God: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (NASB)

Pastors often say that church growth is not reflected in numbers.

Some even say that we should talk instead about church health and leave the growth to God. If you hang around a church long enough, you will probably hear a pastor or church leader de-emphasizing the importance of numbers. This is in response to the growing number of megachurches, or more practically, to explain especially low attendance.

Eventually, you will hear someone say that numbers do matter. We also feel this truth intrinsically. Numbers matter in the sense that God wants people to follow Him. There is a major difference between feeding 5 people or 5,000 people. Even if some church leaders get carried away and are driven by numbers, that does not make the numbers themselves wrong. After all, those numbers represent real people, with real lives and real souls.

In my opinion, while church growth is important, there is something more disconcerting happening within our midst.   Namely, those who do attend church are sitting farther and farther away from each other.

In other words, there is “apartness” within our churches. Take a look around your church, and see if you see what I see: people sitting several feet, several chairs, even several rows apart. In visiting churches across the country – whether in Michigan or Texas – the story is the same. People are not sitting next to each other in church. How utterly sad and depressing is that?

The question, I suppose, comes down to this: Would you rather have 200 people sitting several seats apart, or 2 people sitting next to each other? Which picture is more pleasing to God?

The solution is not to leave your current church, as tempting as it may be. That would only compound the problem. If you really care about the “apartness” of Christian believers, and you want to create community within your church, try something radical – possibly even rude and offensive:

Sit next to someone. Talk to someone. Shake a hand, pat a shoulder, encourage one another.

You may think you are impeding on someone’s personal space, but do not let that fear get in the way of love. It is often the person that does not make eye contact, or who does not sit by anyone, that needs someone to say hello. People do not come to church to be ignored, and that goes for everyone – no matter who they are.

By doing something simple, like sitting next to someone in church, you will eventually see a change. Those around you will move closer and closer together. The hope, of course, is that our churches will be transformed from the inside-out.